Fat, Dumb and Happy

Well, I don't know how dumb or fat, but there's no doubt that many Miami-Dade County school district employees were happy in late 2006. An audit by the Florida Auditor General discovered that over 400 district employees made over $100,000 in 2006. That would be great news if teachers made up a good portion of these people. Unfortunately, less than 1 percent taught in classrooms, according to the linked article above. In addition, $1.4 million in bonuses were given to administrators last year.

What's the big deal? The school district is threatening to cut supplies, substitute teachers, non-essential hourly staff and overtime, according to a report by Local 10 two days ago. I'm all for cutting where it's necessary, but why are teachers getting the short end of the stick when administrators get the big bonuses and walk around with fat wallets?

I'm not a big government type of guy, but I do support public education. It provided me with a solid education all throughout my school years, and I know and visit enough schools to know that there's a lot of talented educators and students in the system. Unfortunately, we have an administration that cares too much about their own well-being to take care of those who make up the backbone of our kids' educations. In other words, the return on our investment isn't what it should be. I think Rudy Crew has done a lot of good when it comes to accountability and focus on school performance, but it appears obvious that when teachers are getting meager salary increases, while administrators and other personnel are raking in nice money, there's something wrong.